Missions

Dear Friends in Messiah;

 

Happy Passover. This year Passover starts on the evening of Saturday, April 12th and ends the 7 day festival at sunset on Saturday, April 19th.

Did you know??? For the first 300 years of Church history, Passover and Easter were celebrated at the same time because Jesus was sacrificed on Passover and arose from he dead on the third day. 

However, 300 years into church history, because of their dislike of the Jewish people, some church leaders decided to move the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus off the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar calendar, and move it to a solar calendar so the two celebrations rarely coincide. Very few Christians are aware of the Jewish roots of death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, so sad .
 

The Passover Lamb points to Jesus, the Lamb of God!

 

The day before Jesus was crucified he ate a final meal with his 12 disciples known as “The Last Supper.” This meal is also known by Jewish people as “Passover.” The first Passover took place about 1,400 years before Jesus when the people of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt. God told the people of Israel he would deliver them from slavery, but they first had to take a lamb and kill it and put the blood of the lamb on the front door frames of their homes. 

 

That night, an angel of death would pass through the land and he would enter every home that did not have the blood of the lamb placed around their door and he would kill the firstborn person in that home. The people of Israel listened and obeyed God, which brought them freedom from 400 years of slavery.

 

God told the people of Israel that they were to keep the feast of Passover every year. Every year they went up to the Temple in Jerusalem and sacrificed lambs to remember how God had saved them from physical bondage.

 

The Passover lamb is a picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God who delivers us from spiritual bondage of sin. Eight ways the Passover lamb is a type of Jesus, the Lamb of God:

 

1. Both were marked out for execution. The Passover lamb was set aside on the 10th day of the month and then sacrificed on the 14th day of the month. Jesus was slain, “before the foundation of the world!” Revelation 13:8

2. Both were watched from the 10th-14th day of the month. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, that was lamb selection day. Just as the Passover lamb was observed during these 4 days to make sure it was healthy, the religious leaders of Israel asked Jesus some tough questions during these days (See Matthew 22).

3. Both were without spot or blemish. Just as the Passover lamb had to be in perfect health, Jesus the Lamb of God was perfect and without sin. Because he has no sin, he can die for our sin!

4. Both were slain in the prime of their lives.

5. Both were sacrificed in Jerusalem, Israel. The Passover lamb had to be sacrificed in the Temple, which was in Jerusalem. Jesus the lamb of God was also sacrificed just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

6. Both were sacrificed, 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “…Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”

7. Not a bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken, “Each Passover lamb must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of its meat outside, and do not break any of its bones.” Exodus 12:46; While the two men crucified with Jesus had their legs broken by Roman soldiers to hasten their death, they did not break the bones of Jesus in fulfillment of the Passover lamb motif; “So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs…These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken.” John 19:32,33,36

8. The passover lamb was sacrificed by the priests in the Temple, and it was the High Priest and other priests of Israel who delivered Jesus up to the Romans to be crucified.

 

The Sacrifice of Jesus also fulfilled Isaiah chapter 53, greatest Messianic prophecy. The rabbis teach that Isaiah 53 is talking about the suffering of Israel. However, here are 6 reasons this great chapter is talking about the suffering of Jesus and not the suffering of the nation of Israel;

 

1. Grammar, third person singular is used throughout this chapter indicating Isaiah is talking about ONE person and not a group of people.

2. His suffering brings healing to those who believe. When Israel suffered at the hands of gentile nations it brought God’s judgment on those nations, not healing.

3. He had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, something that could not be said of Israel.

4. He suffered in silence. While Israel has suffered more than any other group of people on the face of the earth, she has not been silent about her suffering as the Messiah was.

5. He was “cut off” out of the land of the living. God promised Israel she would never be completely destroyed from this world.

6. He was led “as a lamb to the slaughter.” During the holocaust, many Jewish people rose up in revolt against the Nazi’s when it became clear they were attempting to systematically destroy the Jewish people. One famous quote from the Warsaw ghetto uprising was;

“We will NOT be led as sheep to the slaughter.”

 

Jesus hung on the cross for six hours, from 9 am until 3 pm. At 12 noon, a great darkness came over the land until 3:00 pm. Two different ancient historians wrote about this darkness. Diogenes, a Greek scientist living in Egypt, wrote; “Either God himself suffers at this moment, or sympathizes with one who does.” And actually both were true, Jesus, who is God in the flesh, was suffering for sin, while God the Father was looking down from heaven and sympathizing with his suffering.

 

Phlegon, a Greek from Asia Minor wrote in his book “Olympiads” that a great and remarkable eclipse of the sun unlike any before, turned the day into night at the 6th hour (12 noon, the same hour the gospel of Matthew says), so that the stars were seen and that a great earthquake shook the Roman province of Bithynia.

 

The gospel of Matthew tells us that after Jesus died on the cross there was a great earthquake (Matthew 27:54). This earthquake caused the veil in the Temple that separated man from God to be torn in two, showing that the way to God was now open through the blood sacrifice of Jesus!

 

The Talmud, which are the rabbinic commentaries on the Bible, also spoke of this great earthquake. The Talmud says this quake caused the heavy Temple doors which took 2-3 men to open, suddenly swung OPEN, also showing us the way to God was now open. For, “Whoever calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved!”

 

Happy Passover

Andy Ferrier
https://midwestmessianic.com/